PILOT KILLED
TWO OTHERS INJURED
(By Telegraph — Press Association.) DUNEDIN, This Day.
An Airspeed Oxford bomber, visiting Dunedin from Christchurch, crashed at Taieri aerodrome at 7.25 this morning and burst into flames. Squadron-Leader John Hugh Kitson, who was in charge of the machine, died shortly afterwards from injuries. Aircraftman Ronald Edward Kilpatrick, single, of Oamaru, was seriously hurt and Pilot-Officer Peter Robert McNab, married, of Auckland, was slightly injured. Squadron-Leader Kitson was promoted only yesterday from the rank of Flight-Lieutenant. He joined the R.A.F. in 1934 and arrived in New Zealand on loan to the R.N.Z.A.F. in March of this year. He was employed on flying instructional duties at Wigram. He was married, his wife and two children being in England.
An inquest on Squadron-Leader Kitson was opened today. A Court of Inquiry will be held tomorrow. -Evening Post, 21/6/1940.
CRASH IN OPEN PADDOCK
The bomber had just taken off for a flight at 7.28 when the disaster occurred. It crashed in an open paddock about 400yds from the southern, end of the landing ground, bursting into flames. The three men were removed from the burning machine and conveyed to the station hospital. Here, an hour and a-half after admission, Squadron-leader Kitson died from his injuries. The two other men received treatment at the station hospital, and were then conveyed to the Dunedin Hospital. Kilpatrick’s condition is reported as serious.
Squadron-leader Kitson, who is survived by his wife and two children, who are still in England, was only yesterday promoted from the rank of' Flight-lieutenant. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1934, and arrived in New Zealand on loan to the N.Z.R.A.F. in March of this year. Kilpatrick is a single man, his next-of-kin being his father. McNab is married, his wife being in Auckland.
The crashed bomber was one of a squadron of three visiting Taieri from Wigram aerodrome. The machines were engaged on a practice flight, and were to have returned to Christchurch to-day. An inquest was opened this afternoon, and a court of inquiry will be held to-morrow. This is the third crash at Taieri within a week, and is easily the most serious. Pilot Officer Sutton, who was involved in the crash on Wednesday, is still in a serious condition in the Dunedin Hospital. -Evening Star, 21/6/1940.
FUNERAL NOTICE — the funeral of the late Squadron Leader John Hugh Kitson, R.A.F., will leave Lamb and Hayward’s Chapel, 292 Cashel street, on Monday, at 2.5 p.m., for the Riccarton Churchyard. Service in church commences at 2.30 p.m.
Lamb and Hayward, Ltd. -Press, 22/6/1940.
"Let's Get Him Out"
-Press Association)
(By Telegraph.) DUNEDIN, Jan. 26.
Details of the incident in which Leading Aircraftman D. T. Herrick, son of Mr and Mrs E. J. Herrick, of "Lindisfarne," Pakowhai road, Hastings, and Corporal E. A. Stratton, both of the R.N.Z.A.F., received the George Medal for extricating an injured officer from the blazing wreckage of his aircraft at Taieri, show that a squadron of Airspeed Oxford bombers visited Taieri in June, and on the morning of June 21 one had just taken off when it crashed in a paddock and burst into flames.
The pilot was Squadron Leader John Hugh Kitson, of Gloucestershire. Accompanying him were First-class Aircraftman Ronald Edward Kilpatrick, of Oamaru, and Pilot Officer Peter Robert McNab, of Auckland.
Immediately a fire tender and ambulance were despatched to the scene, more than half a mile away, and others also ran towards the blazing plane. There was a quantity of high explosive on the plane.
The rescue work was done swiftly. Aircraftman Kilpatrick and Corporal McNab were extricated at once. Someone was heard to say that the occupants of the machine were all out, but others contradicted this, indicating that three men had been on board when the bomber took off.
Aircraftman Herrick, who was one of those who had run from the aerodrome, said: "Come on, let's get him out."
While firemen sprayed foam on the door of the machine, he and Corporal Stratton, a member of the crew of the fire tender, dashed in, located Squadron Leader Kitson, and brought him out. Squadron Leader Kitson was very severely injured and died an hour and a half later. Aircraftman Kilpatrick and Corporal McNab were less seriously injured.
A few moments after the rescue, the petrol tank of the wrecked machine burst, but the flames were quenched before the high explosive which the plane was carrying was sufficiently heated to detonate.
Squadron Leader Kitson had been a member of the R.A.F. since 1934. At the time of his death he was on loan to the R.N.Z.A.F.
Aircraftman Herrick was at the time a pupil pilot. He is now in service overseas. Corporal Stratton was attached to the fire-tender crew at Taieri. He has since been transferred to Wigram. -Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, 27/1/1940.
AIRMAN'S DEATH
RECENT TAIERI CRASH
Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M.. acting as coroner, yesterday announced his finding in the matter of the inquest on the body of Squadron-leader John Hugh Kitson, whose death followed the crashing of an Airspeed-Oxford bomber which he was piloting in the vicinity of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Training Station at Taieri last Friday.
The coroner’s verdict was that death was due to heart failure following extensive burns and injuries caused by the crashing of an aeroplane which the deceased was piloting. -Evening Star, 28/6/1940.
A CHRISTIAN LIFE
Tribute To Memory Of Air Force Officer
SQUADRON LEADER KITSON
A moving tribute to the late Squadron Leader J. H. Kitson, who was killed when a bomber aircraft recently crashed at Taieri Aerodrome, Dunedin, was paid by the Rev. Frank Cook, vicar of St. Peter's Church, Upper Riccarton, where he was buried.
"John Hugh Kitson had been in New Zealand barely three months, yet he made a deep impression on the lives of many people in different parts of the country.” said Mr. Cook in an address at the burial service. “How came he, a young man only 28 years old, to wield such an influence? First, he saw people not. as they are, but as, under God, what they might become. God was so changing him that he knew the same kind of thing could happen in everybody. Secondly, he saw people against a background of world redemption. That is to say, he knew God had a plan for the whole world and he always saw the so-called small happenings in a larger setting. He told me of a world dossier he had brought with him from England. I was astonished when I saw it. It gave an accurate account of the work of Moral Rearmament in all parts of the world. Yet he was in no sense ‘cause-minded.’ Nor was he an idealist. I should call him a spiritual realist. In seeing people as they might be, he never mistook what they really were at the moment. He loved his fellow man: yet amid the miseries of our time he saw that the problems of the world are the problems of people, and a man was either part of the world's disease or part of its cure. Inwardly released himself, he had an infectious humour, and was a most entertaining companion.
In the Air Force.
“His first commitment was to the Royal New Zealand Air Force station at Wigram. The last note I have concerning him is of a conversation, after we had listened to God together. In his work he was at first tempted to think that the task assigned him was just a routine training job that he did not much care for. He quickly faced this, and then saw its great possibilities, because it brought him into touch with all pilots trained at the station. He had found the answer to fear in his own life, specially fear of mishaps in the air, and he knew how God could increase a man’s mental capacity, and steady his nerves. He told me of one man he was teaching, whose skill as a pilot had increased remarkably when he found a deeper faith in God. Hugh knew that God could do not only this, but a great deal more, and that He could show the way out of every problem.
“His work did not end with teaching people to fly, nor with helping his fellow man: it involved his duty to the Empire as well. He saw the contribution he could make to the whole war effort by turning out pilots who were both hate-free and fear-free. Further even than this, it was a contribution to peace, for these qualities would endure when fighting was over, and were essential to durable peace.
“Immediately on his arrival in Christchurch, he identified himself with the work of the Church, and asked to be placed on the Communicants’ roll at St. Peter’s,” continued Mr. Cook. “On Sundays he attended regularly the early celebration of Holy Communion, and latterly, at the evening service, read the lessons. He also threw himself wholeheartedly into meetings for men, so that they might be able to see their part in the task of building a new civilization in place of that which is crumbling before our eyes. For he knew God has a plan for every man, and the most important thing in the world was for man to find it.
Faced The Challenge.
What is the secret which lay behind all this devoted service? First, he had really faced the challenge of the Cross of Christ in his own life. He brought himself, his sins and every possession and talent to the foot of the Cross. This made him both humble and transparent in his contact with others. Determined to be absolutely open, when he first came to see me with a view to our working together, he told me within ten minutes the worst there was to know about him. I should add that these things were no longer sins, but had become part of the victories of a living Christ in the world of today.
"Then he was careful to maintain his contact with God. However early his official duties began, he got up soon enough to spend at least an hour praying to God and listening to Him. The thoughts that came to him in this time of quiet he usually shared with me, and often with others. This listening to God both in the morning and at other times, gave his life an inner discipline, issuing in a satisfying programme for each day. Thus he was rapidly increasing in spiritual strength, so that his life and the work he accomplished in New Zealand in three months became not only an inspiration, but a challenge.'' -Dominion, 9/7/1940.
Squadron Leader Kitson was not taking off, on the day of his death, on a training flight. His section of three "bombers" was sent south for a more serious purpose. The planes, Airspeed Oxfords, were design for the progression of a trainee pilot from single to twin-engined flight. Mounting a bomb beneath them was also intended for training. But, in June 1940, word went around military circles that a German raiding ship was in the area and had possibly laid mines at the mouth of Otago Harbour.
John Kitson's Oxford took off carrying a 250lb bomb and turned to the right to clear some trees. The plane stalled and crashed. The subsequent investigation revealed that the plane took off with frost on the wings which affected their lift and that the wire "gate" which prevented the pilot from (normally) applying emergency power had not been broken.
Specifications for the Oxford as a bombing trainer reveal that the standard bomb load was 16 bombs weighing 11.5 pounds. That adds up to a load of 184lb. Perhaps a heavier bomb load for what was a light twin aeroplane was a factor in the crash.
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